Tube socket and mounting bar



Nov. 26, 1957 K. M. srou. ETAL TUBE SOCKET AND uoummc BAR Filed April 27, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 g lmu INVENTORS KENNETH M. STOLL FRANKLIN A. METZLER, JR.

ATTORNEY Nov. 26, 1957 K. M. STOLL ETAL TUBE SOCKET AND MOUNTING BAR Filed April 27, 1956 2 Sheats$heet 2 INVENTORS ILJ Lisa J 6 v KENNETH M. STOLL FRANKLIN A. METZLERJR v |6 |8 LJL Y 7 4M] TTORNEY United States Patent TUBE SOCKET AND MOUNTING BAR Kenneth M. Stoll, Port Allegany, and Franklin A. Metzler, Jr., Emporium, Pa.

Application April 27, 1956, Serial No. 581,143

8 Claims. (Cl. 339--193) This invention relates to electron tube aging and testing means.

In particular it relates to a bar which may be a part of an electron tube aging and testing machine, which has present on its front face a number of sockets in which electron tubes may be inserted for aging and testing.

In greater particularity, the invention is concerned with the construction of the socket and its electrical connections to contacts on the back face of the bar.

It is an object of the invention to provide an electrical socket which may be easily loaded with an electron tube.

It is a further object of the invention to provide, in such a socket, for excellent electrical contact between the contacts in the socket and the pin leads of an electron tube.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means whereby good electrical contact is always maintained between movable contacts within the socket and fixed contacts carried by the bar.

These and other objects will be made apparent after consideration of the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an aging and testing bar showing a number of tube receiving sockets.

Fig. 2 is a section along the line 22 of Fig. 1, through one of the sockets showing a tube loosely held in the socket with parts in normal unoperated position.

Fig. 3 is a similar section through the same socket showing the parts in operated position with the tube leadins making contact with the socket contacts.

Fig. 4 is a top view of a portion of a bottom plate assembly.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a contact member within the socket.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the interior of a cap portion of the socket, and

Fig. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the socket and part of the bar to better show the construction of parts.

The invention herein is a development of the invention in tube sockets disclosed in application of John H. Clark and Kenneth M. Stoll for Gravity Insertion Tube Socket and assigned to the assignee of this application, Serial No. 488,882, filed February 17, 1955.

Referring to the drawings and in particular to Fig. 4, it will be noted that, in general, the device comprises a bottom plate assembly, a cover, and a number of sockets between the bottom assembly and cover. The bottom assembly comprises a metal frame 16 having side rails 18 extending longitudinally of the frame with cross straps 20 joining the side rails, the cross straps and rails defining open rectangular areas, one opposite each socket. Secured to the frame, as by screws 21, is an insulating sheet 22 carrying electrical contacts 23, 24, on its front and rear faces, respectively, these contacts being printed or otherwise affixed to the sheet. As many contacts may be provided as there are pin leads on the electron tube to be subjected to aging or test. As here illustrated, nine such contacts are shown. On the rear exposed face of the sheet, the contacts 24 are arranged in linear fash- 2,814,791 Patented Nov. 26, 1957 "ice ion, and each contact, see Figs. 2 and 3, is furnished with a resilient contact arm 26 for engaging with track contacts, not shown. It should be understood that in use, a number of bars are arranged parallelly on an intermittently movable conveyor, to which the bars are attached, there being fixed track contacts to be engaged by the spring contacts 26 on the back of the sheet for conducting current and voltages to the various electrodes within electron tubes mounted in the sockets. On the upper face of the insulating sheet these contacts are provided with printed circuit leads 28 of copper or the like, connecting with the contacts 23 and terminating in short contact stubs 30 which are wider than the leads and are arranged radially of a common center. As will be explained later on, these stubs are intended to be short sections on which ride metallic shoes of a socket attached to the sheet, the socket being concentric with the radial center of the stubs. The sheet is provided with slots 32 adjacent the ends of the stubs to allow dirt or metallic dust ground oli the shoes or stubs in use of the sockets to fall out of the assembly, thus preventing leakage paths from being created by this dust and dirt between conductive portions of the socket.

Mounted on the sheet are the sockets. Each socket has an insulating base 34 affixed to the sheet as by screws 36. The socket also has a multi-part translatable pin lead contacting portion 38. The base 34, see Fig. 7, has radial slots 42 opening through the bottom of the base, the slots corresponding in position and number with the contact stubs 30. The bottom of the base portion is molded to provide channels or guide ways 44, one for each slot, and slidable in each channel is a metal shoe 46, as of copper, the lower surface of which rides on a stub 30.

Each shoe is urged toward the center of the insulating base by a radial coiled spring 50 lying in a channel 44 and surrounding a dowel pin 51 in the rear of the shoe, the spring reacting between the rear of the shoe and a periph eral wall portion of the base. A ring 52 seated in a shouldered portion of the base prevents the springs from popping out when the socket is disassembled from the plate assembly for repairs. The centripetal displacement of the shoe is limited by engagement of the centrally directed end of the shoe with the inner end of the slot. Also said end of each shoe is bevelled at an angle of ap proximately with the bevel face extending upwardly of the base for cooperation with contacts in the vertically translatable portion 38. The translatable portion is normally held with its contacts out of contact with the bevelled surfaces of the shoes by a central coiled vertical spring 53. The spring 53 is centered in the base by being seated in a recess 54 therein, the upper end being centered by reason of the head of a screw 56 entering the top coil of the spring. The screw 56 serves to hold together the two composite sections with entrapped contacts of the translatable portion of the socket. The translatable portion comprises a disc 58 with two upstanding concentric ridges 59 and 60, each ridge being rectangular in cross-section. One ridge is near the periphery of the disc providing a shoulder 61 to fit against a complementary portion in a hollow cover 62. As best seen in Fig. 7, the ridges are provided with aligned radial slots 63 corresponding in angular position and number to the shoes 46. Each pair of aligned slots in the ridges houses a contact 64, each contact being of right angular forma tion, as seen in Fig. 5, with one horizontal arm 66 freely movable in a pair of the radially aligned slots 63 and another vertical arm 70 extending loosely downwardly through a slot 72 in the disc. The lower end of the vertical arm 70 is provided with a 45 bevelled end 74 complementary to the bevelled end on a shoe and will radially shift the shoe against the action of its spring when the translatable portion 38 is thrust downwardly against the forces exerted by the central vertical spring 53 and the radial springs 50. The slot 72 is longer than the radial dimension of the downwardly extending arm and the vertical height of the radial slots confining the arms is greater than the vertical height of the arms 66 whereby the contacts 64 are free to shift radially of the slots 63 and pivot therein. Pivoting of a contact is promoted by reason of the radial slot being shallower at the ridge 59 than between the ridge and a slot 72 and by reason of the weight of part 70. The free ends 76 of. the horizontal arms form the elements which contact the pin leads of a tube under test and preferably are roughened on the contact face to bite into and make better contact with the leads of a tube when the same is inserted into the socket and when the translatable portion is pressed down. The cover 62 is provided with a circular array of openings 78 through which the pin leads of a tube are inserted and with air escape openings 79 for free movement of air on translation of the portion. The disc is provided with openings 80 for allowing dirt, etc., to fall therethrough. Normally the arms are free to move radially away from the pins when a tube is inserted into the socket whereby there is no or exceedingly little resistance to tube insertion. When, however, the translatable portion 38 is pressed down against the base 34, the bevelled ends 74 of the right angled arms engage the bevelled faces of the shoes, and, by reason of resistance afforded by the radially acting springs 50, the right angled arms are shifted radially toward the pins with some pivotal action. Firm electrical contact is thus made with the pin leads. The outer ridge 60 is provided with a recess 82 to be engaged by a downwardly extending projection 84, see Fig. 6, in the cover to ensure proper orientation of the cover with respect to the disc and alignment of the pin receiving holes in the cover with the contacts 64 in the disc. The inner face of the cover, of course, confines the horizontal arms to their limited vertical movement in the slots of disc 58. The screw 56 previously described passes through a central hole in the disc and is threaded into a boss 86 in the cover to hold the translatable portion in assembled relationship.

The base is provided with a neck 90 providing a cvlindrical sleeve within which the translatable portion is movable vertically. The neck i recessed on its upper surface as at 92 to provide seats for detents 94 which are pivoted on pivot pins 96 standing up from the bottom of the recesses. Each detent has a dog 98 configurated to fill the recess and a tail 100 extending outwardly of the neck and lying on a shoulder 102 on the upper surface of the base. The cover 62 has a rim 104 slidably engaging the interior of the neck, the upper surface of the rim providing a shoulder 106 over which the dogs may be rotated to hold the translatable part down When the same is depressed. The dogs are urged to locking and unlocking position by a ring 108 rotatable about the neck and provided with tapered slots 110 on its under face to engage and move the tails in either direction about the detent pivots, the slots being of just enough width and taper to accomplish this purpose. To urge the ring rotationally about the neck and in a direction to urge the detents to locking position, there is provided a coiled spring 112 fastened at one end to a screw 114 extending out laterally from the base and at its other end to a pin 116 extending downwardly from the ring. The side of the base portion is recessed as at 118 to house the spring. In the raised position of the translatable portion of the socket, the dogs bear resiliently against the outer peripheral wall of the rim. In the lowered position of the translatable portion, the dogs lie on the shoulder 106. To allow for movement of the dogs out of the ridge, the ring 108 is provided with recesses 123. As previously explained, in the down position of the translatable portion, the contacts in the socket are firmly engaged with the pin leads. In fact the engagement is so firm that it is very diflicult, with the portion in depressed position, to extract a tube from the socket. To hold the oscillatable detent operating ring 108 in place, a second fixed cover ring or torus 120 is provided, the same being held onto the upper surface of the neck of the base by screws 122 or the like. In order to rotate the detents to release the translatable portion for upward movement, the ring 108 is provided with upstanding operating studs 124, these passing through slots 126 in the torus. To restrain the translatable portion against rotation, the torus is provided with one or more keyways 128 and the translatable portion has made integral therewith corresponding keys 130, slidable in the keyways. To lend a finished appearance to the apparatus thus far described, there is provided the casing 132 with openings 134 providing access to the sockets and their operating mechanisms and held to the plate assemblies by screws 136 or the like.

In use, after dropping a tube into the socket, the translatable portion is depressed manually or preferably by a machine part, whereupon the tube leads are contacted electrically and the tube is held against removal. The tube will remain so held until either by manual means or by a machine part the studs 124 are engaged and thrust arcuately to rotate the ring 108 to release the detents 94 from the shoulder 106 to thereby enable the spring 53 to elevate the translatable part, freeing the contacts from the shoes and the arm contacts from the tube pins.

Having thus disclosed the invention what is claimed as new is:

l. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base mounted on said sheet carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center, each of said shoes having an upper beveled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion movable toward and from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the lead-ins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings and said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement therein, the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening.

2. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base mounted on said sheet carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center, each of said shoes having an upper bevelled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion movable toward and from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the lead-ins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings, said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement therein, the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening, means for latching the translatable portion in position with the contact members in said portion in contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, and means for releasing said latching means.

3. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base mounted on said sheet carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center, each of said shoes having an upper bevelled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion spring urged away from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the lead-ins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings and said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement therein, the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening.

4. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base mounted on said sheet carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center each of said shoes having an upper bevelled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion spring urged away from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the lead-ins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings, said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement there in, the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening, means for latching the translatable portion in position with the contact members in said portion in contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes and means for releasing said latching means, said latching means comprising tailed detents mounted on the base member spring pressed against the periphery of the translatable portion, a shoulder on the periphery of the translatable portion over which the detents will engage on displace ment of the translatable portion toward the shoes, and said latch releasing means comprising a member simultaneously engaging and moving the tails of the detents to displace them from said shoulder.

5. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base with a cylindrical opening perpendicaular to the sheet, said base being mounted on said sheet and carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending into the cylindrical opening and through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center, each of said shoes having an upper bevelled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion movable toward and from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, a spring between the base and socket portion to urge the two apart, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the lead-ins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings, said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement therein,

the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening, means for latching the translatable portion in position with the contact members in said portion in contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes and means for releasing said latching means, said latching means comprising detent means pivotally mounted in recess in the rim of the cylindrical opening of the base with dog portions normally in the recesses and tail portions projecting out of the recesses, said translatable portion having a eripheral portion slidable close to the wall of the cylindrical opening and having a shoulder adapted to be engaged by said dogs, a ring mounted on the base having recessed portions the walls of which engage the tails of the detents, a second spring urging the ring to position to cause the dogs to be spring pressed against the periphery of the translatable portion whereby movement of the translatable portion toward the base will enable the dogs to engage over the shoulder, and means to oscillate the ring against the action of the second spring to release the dogs from the shoulder to enable the first spring to move the translatable portion away from the base.

6. A testing socket comprising an insulating sheet on which contact elements are arranged radially, a base mounted on said sheet and carrying a number of radially arranged shoes extending through the bottom of the base and slidable on the contact elements on the sheet, spring means urging the shoes toward a common center, each of said shoes having an upper bevelled surface on a face directed toward the center of the radially arranged shoes, a translatable socket portion movable toward and from the shoes and carrying contacts with portions directed toward but normally out of contact with the bevelled faces of the shoes, means guiding the portion for rectilinear movement toward and from the shoes, lead-in receiving openings in the translatable portion for accommodating the lead-ins of an electrical unit with the leadins extending in the direction of movement of the translatable portion, said translatable portion also having slots arranged radially of the portion and intersecting the axes of the openings, and said contact members each having a portion lying loosely in said slots for both radial and pivotal movement therein, the pivotal movement of each contact member being substantially in a plane intersecting the axis of its associated opening, means for latching the translatable portion when the same has been moved toward the shoes, and rotatable means oscillatable about the translatable portion but independent of translatory movement therewith to release the latching means.

7. In a testing socket, an insulating plate, radially arranged contacts on said plate, contact shoes slidable along the contacts in the direction of their radial extent and openings through the plate at each end of the radial contacts to permit dust and dirt to fall therethrough.

8. A testing socket comprising an insulating plate, radially arranged contacts on one face of said plate, shoes slidably engaging said contacts, springs pressing the contacts radially inward toward their common cen ter, said shoes having bevelled faces, a translatable portion adapted to receive pin leads of an electric component and movable toward and away from the shoes and having contact elements each of which extend toward its respective shoe and operative to slide the shoe on its radially arranged contact against the force of its spring when the translatable portion approaches the shoes, each of said contact elements being positioned in said translatable portion for engagement with a respective pin lead in said translatable portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,458,993 Hanopol Ian. 11, 1949 2,578,288 Cook Dec. 11, 1951 2,696,535 McLean Dec. 7, 1954 2,766,435 French Oct. 9, 1956 

